While in the
Cayman Islands last year, I was lucky to experience a swim with the sting rays. This is an organised trip on
Grand Cayman.

The trip was organised through Captain Marvin who is now well into his 90’s and is still working. The business started some Fifty years ago by captain Marvin with one charter boat, previously he was a fisherman and when he came back into port after a trip he used to throw his left over bait over the side of the fishing boat and stingrays used to feed on this. After a period of time the stingrays got used to him arriving with the bait, This gave Captain Marvin the idea of turning this into a business to take tourists to feed them.

I was a little nervous of swimming with the stingrays as only three days before my trip unfortunately Steve Irwin the Australian Naturalist had been killed by a bull stingray in
Australia. I needn’t have worried the experience was won of the best so far in my travels. We anchored off a sandbank about a mile from the shore. The water was crystal clear and quite shallow. The stingrays were there swimming around waiting for us, some of them were over 6ft in diameter. Over the years they have recognised when the boat is approaching. The crew went in with their favourite food squid and they were soon swarming around. I went into the water tentatively but I needn’t have worried. The stingrays swam between us and were very gentle. Their skins are very soft and rubbery. The crew picked them up and put them on our backs so we could feel the sucking sensation of their mouths on our backs. We could also hold them just having them slightly out of the water. It was a wonderful experience and one I would thoroughly recommended.